Archives for May 2011

A few weeks from now, I will head off to Boston for a special event focused entirely on server virtualization. Tech Field Day 6 brings together so many great things that it’s hard for me to summarize it!

Next month, I will be heading to Chicago for TechTarget’s Storage Decisions conference. This show does a good job on the editorial side, suggesting timely topics and bringing in independent voices like Howard Marks. I will have three presentations to give: Sessions on data reduction and storage virtualization in the main conference track, as well as a dinner discussion focusing on controlling the growth of data. Registration is free for qualified end-users, and I urge you to attend.

For the last few months, I’ve been experimenting with dictation software on the Mac. Previously, I had used the built-in dictation software in Windows Vista and Windows 7, but it was annoying to launch a virtual machine every time I wanted to dictate something. On the Mac and purchase an (expensive) copy of Dragon Dictate for Mac. So far, my experience has been less than positive.

I recently worked with Druva to produce a series of videos documenting the installation and configuration of InSync. As part of this process, I went through the entire roll out myself using virtual machines and real data. The result was eye-opening: InSync really does install in under 10 minutes!

The Boxcar plugin is a “display” not an “application”, so it shows up under the “Display Options” tab, not the “Applications” tab in Growl on Mac OS X. The plugin installation automatically opens the wrong tab!

Data is getting bigger, virtualization is expanding, and data protection applications are ill-prepared to deal with it. This much we can all agree on. But Symantec’s introduction of “V-Ray,” which the company describes as “X-Ray vision into … virtual environments” has just left me puzzled. Is this “marketecture” or some sort of technology or product?

Although it is not a full-featured backup application, I heartily endorse Time Machine since its ease-of-use encourages average users to backup their data and enables them to recover lost files in a user-friendly environment. Time Machine local snapshots add another layer of protection for Apple users on the go. As long as they do not rely on local snapshots exclusively for data protection, I call that a win.

This week’s rapture hysteria brought to mind one of my favorite pieces of Worcester, Massachusetts folklore: Deed Rock and God’s Ten Acres. It is a tale of extreme belief, and the lengths some people will go to see another day.

iSCSI is an excellent choice in situations where Fibre Channel investment is nonexistent or badly in need of wholesale upgrade. FCoE, on the other hand, is likely to take over in high-end enterprise shops. It is relentlessly promoted by major vendors, and it seems that they will force the upgrade eventually.